Under Construction
by Cliche Tragedies
Summary: Ollie is the pianist in the most popular band, Under Construction. One night after their first big performance, he meets a girl who wants to her band to make it to the big time just like his. He ends up falling for her, but does she feel the same way.


Prologue

We never meant to become some big, wonderful, known-around-the-world band. It all started as a joke really. One day Steph and I were bored beyond reason, so we said "hey let's start a band!" Yea I know we were pretty cool 15 year-olds. Stephanie played the guitar and I played piano. Nothing special.

We lived in a flat with my mom and dad. It was a real shitty place, no lift, and the rooms were small. Finally, when I turned sixteen, after living in that crap shoot for twelve years, we moved. We moved to a new crap shoot. The only thing that wasn't shitty about it was the fact that right above our flat was my best mate Charles. Not only was he my best mate, but he was also my cousin. He lived with his father and sister Reilley, their mother had recently passed away. Charles played the guitar too, and Reils was the drummer. We were in pretty good shape, three times a week we would practice in Reilley's room so we wouldn't have to move her drums around.

About a month after Charles and Reilley joined the band we had three songs. Constructive Criticism, Murphy's Law and In the Corner. Three songs, four band members and no band name. Not to mention that we still needed a bass player. It was summer holiday and we finally decided that we were ready to play small gigs. Our first was one of Charles' and Reilley's distantly related cousins' graduation party. He was from a small state in the US called Connecticut. He moved in with another one of his relatives in England for the summer. He just happened to play bass.

"Hey, man great party," I said to Iggy, the graduate.

"Yea, thanks man, I mean for playing for free and everything," Iggy replied. He was almost two meters and towered over my 1.75 meters. He was the typical American guy, tall, pretty fit, brown, straight, long hair, brown eyes; I suppose most girls would call him cute, or the average heart throb, but he was just another guy to me. "Hey, where's your bass player?" he asked me as he scanned around the room for them.

"Oh, he's on holiday in the state of illusions," I joked. It took Iggy another minute until he got it.

"So, the bass player is not?" he asked. I gave him a shrug.

"We could use one for some of the songs, but it's not a necessity."

"You know, I play bass, just as a hobby though," Iggy shrugged. "I've got it upstairs in its case, gimme a second and I'll get it, that is if you'll let me audition." We were on a lucky streak. A gig, plus a possible bass player. Iggy left to go and find his bass and returned a few minutes later.

I gathered the rest of the band so that they could all give their opinions. Iggy started playing, he played modern pop, old rock, even blues.

"Well, that's rather impressive for just a hobby" Charles said as he clapped Iggy on the back.

"I think that you can take that as 'you're in'," I said.

Lucky for us, Iggy was staying close by and took the bus to our flat twice a week to practice our songs. He helped us write four new songs and come up with a band name. Under Construction. That was our new name. Our best song kind of went along with what we called the "construction" theme, the song's name was "Blueprints". It was only September when we got out first real gig as a band with five members. It was at a nightclub called "Stop Spot". That's where Dani found us.

"I'm so nervous," Reilley whined as she twirled a drumstick between her fingers.

"Me too," Stephanie said as she fiddled with her guitar pick.

"Listen, guys, we're going to do great! Remember right before we performed at Iggy's party, we were so psyched and to top it all off we got out bass player. That was just a party, imagine what could happen here ... at a nightclub!" Charles said. "Igg, Ollie? Back me up here."

"Yea, don't sweat it girls. Everything is all right. Speaking of which let's do a quick sound check," Igg directed. I decided that by sitting on the piano bench and practicing my hand placements, it would calm me down. I was the first to sing, my song was the most popular in the band, of course, "Blueprints". Then Stephanie sang her song "Murphy's Law" and then Charles sang the newest of our songs "Dark Lights, Long Nights". Then we wrapped up with "Constructive Criticism" when all of us sang bits and pieces.

Overall we did pretty well. I missed a few notes during "Blueprints" because multitasking isn't my specialty. The whole playing piano and singing was confusing me. Then in "Murphy's Law" the girls screwed up the harmony, but the crowd couldn't tell the difference. We probably could've stood on stage with those fake guitars, the lap keyboards and pots and pans for drums and the crowd would've cheered. At least one half of the crowd was drunk or high and the other half was either getting cozy in a corner or not paying attention to out music.

"I think we did pretty well," Iggy said as they exited the stage. "Wait here and I'll grab us some beer," Iggy said as he disappeared into the crowd. Minutes later he returned with five pints of beer. He quickly chugged his and handed the rest out to each of us. The girls took their time drinking theirs and then disappeared for a while. Charles and I both drank the beer fairly quickly and then Iggy returned with another round. Before we knew it, we had each drank at least 2 pints of beer and our heads were spinning. It was already 12:30 and we had to be out of the club by one, so we started packing up the instruments. The girls returned just as we were done packing.

Daniella, Dani, Bock was one of those people getting coy in the corner during out performance. She happened to be a talents agent looking for new talent. She may have been getting cozy, but her eyes were always listening. We were packing up the equipment when she made her move.

"So, you guys weren't half bad for a bunch of teenagers," she said as she strode ever to us and sat on the drum cases right in front of Iggy. She was showing a little too much cleavage for her own good and wasn't all there herself.

"Why thank you _mizz_," Iggy slurred.

"My name is Dani Bock, talent agent. I think I've just found some talent. Does this talent happen to have an agent?" she asked. We all took at least five minutes to process what she had said.

"Why don't I give you my card with my name and number," she said as she winked at Iggy. I had to admit that she wasn't bad looking and she had a pretty hot body. Her hair was light brown and she had brown eyes. She was at least twenty-five.

"_Or, yo an me can go descuz stuff,_" Iggy replied. He tried to stand up but was too drunk to, and grabbed Dani's thigh for balance. "_Soory," _he said letting his hand linger on her thigh for a second longer and then recoiling.

"My my, you are the charming bunch. Now, who should I give this calling card to? Someone who looks responsible and not drunk," she laughed. After looking over the four of us (excluding Iggy because he was on the ground again, practically passed out), she decided on one of us.

"You, young man," Dani said as she grabbed my upper arm and pulled me towards her. "You look in good shape. Now, I want you to discuss this with your band once everyone is sober, and then call. If I don't get a call by the end of the week I will assume that you are not interested," Dani explained to me, mostly, as she thrust the card into my hand. "Goodnight."

I looked over the small business card. It read: _Daniella Bock: Talent agent and director. 342-555-6327._ I looked up just in time to see Dani reunite with a man, she kissed him and the walked out of the club hand in hand.

I looked back at the rest of the band. Iggy was passed out on the floor, Reilley was sleeping on Steph's shoulder, Steph was totally zoning and Charles was clenching his stomach.

"Oh shit!" Charles yelled as he turned and hurled into the nearest trash. As soon as it sounded like he had finished I walked to him and helped him to the nearest seat. Steph and I, being the only ones remotely close to sober, carried the instruments out to the corner. While she waited outside with the equipment I went backstage and woke up Reilley. Charles helped me drag Iggy outside onto a bench.

We didn't get home until two-thirty. For some teens around here, that's early, but for me, that was pretty late. It wasn't because I had a curfew, it was the fact that I didn't have one. My parents were stuck in the whole "love, peace, happiness" thing (It was a miracle that Stephanie and I weren't named Peace and Joy). They thought that I needed to "write my own story" and if that included staying out until two-thirty in the morning, drunk then so be it. That I would soon learn that even though my parents wouldn't punish me, there were other consequences, such as hangovers. I was always the exact opposite of what my parents had thought I would be. I was responsible and overanalyzed everything. I was always home before midnight.

The next day I slept until three in the afternoon and saw Stephanie rummaging around my room.

"What'd ya want?" I groaned as I looked at the clock.

"The business card that that Dani girl gave you," she replied as she tossed a pair of jeans over to me which landed on my face. I pulled the jeans off my face and groaned into the pillow. My head hurt so badly, hangover, a consequence that I had always done my best to avoid.

"You see those jeans hanging on the doorknob," I asked Steph as I pointed to a pair. She nodded her head and rushed over to them, checking the pockets for the card. "It's not in those." Stephanie looked at me sternly and then threw that pair at me too. "Ok, fine fine," I grumbled as I kicked the covers off of myself and slowly got out of bed. I looked around the room for the pants I had worn the previous night. After some intensive digging I still hadn't found them. I was having a very hard time remembering what had happened once I got home. Stephanie followed me around the room like a lost puppy until I finally found the pants. I reached my hand into the pocket and pulled out the card. She immediately snatched it out of y hands.

"Thanks!" she said as she started out of the room.

"Wait, wait, slow down. You're not actually gunna call her, are you?" I asked

"I dunno. Reilley and me were thinking of 'requesting a meeting' with her. What do you think? Would you go?" she asked me looking hopeful.

"Uh, sure I guess. Just don't say yes to any contracts ok?" I instructed.

"I'm not dumb, Just cause I'm five minutes younger than you doesn't make me less intelligent," she sneered as she left my room. I stumbled out of my room after her and into the hall. I groped my way into the bathroom. I felt like I was going to heave, but realized I hadn't eaten since the day before at a late lunch, so all that came up was saliva and some liquid. Lovely.

I stared at myself in the mirror. There, staring back at me was a gut, 1.75 meters. Brown, short, curly hair and green eyes. Under my eyes were large bags. My chest and stomach weren't extremely muscular, in fact they were kind of scrawny, but they were flat. I splashed water on my face in an attempt to wake myself up. There was a knock on the door.

"Ollie, open up," it was Charles and he didn't sound too happy. I unlocked the door and let him in. He didn't look too much better than me. "Damn remodeling. Why in the world do you have to remodel a bathroom? It's not like someone's going to stand in the doorway and admire a flipping bathroom!" Charles ranted as he grabbed his toothbrush and squirted toothpaste on it. "My mouth tastes like crap."  
"That could be because you hurled twice more after we got here," I said sarcastically. He sneered and started to brush his teeth. I looked back in the mirror, Charles and I looked like we were twins. More so than Stephanie and me. He had brown hair also. It was wavy and longer than mine, but the same shade. He had blue eyes instead of green but we had similar facial features. The main difference in us was the fact that he had an athletic build. He was 1.8 meters and actually had muscles. It must have been from his mother's side of the family because it sure wasn't from our fathers'.

Our dads are brothers and hence the reason why we are cousins, and look so alike. However, our sisters both got the exact opposite genes. Stephanie has my mother's blonde, curly hair and blue eyes. She was at least 1.65 meters by now and was nowhere near fat, rather skinny. Reilley on the other hand had her mother's bright red hair, straight and short. She had green eyes as well. She was also about 1.65 meters and had an athletic build like Charles.

"Hey, you know what I want to do today?" I asked Charles. He pretended to think and then shrugged his shoulders.

"I think that we should go and check out some new equipment, like amps and stuff," I replied. Charles gave me his "yea right" look. I shrugged and we continued to wash up for the new day.


End file.
